9/13/08 - Airline, Sunward, Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys, Here In Arms, King Bucks

braved hurricane ike to head to dada for method entertainment's second annual bbq bash. knuckles and the piledriver came with, and josephus, batman and wifey showed up, too. damn near a real crowd, eh?

pretty big turn-out at dada, i thought, especially since it was only 7:15 when we got there. and as knuckles put it, the place was crawlin.

doorman made my fuckin year by doin a double-take while checkin my ID and sayin, "man there's no way you look that old". ha!

first band we saw was the King Bucks, and they were damn good. really enjoyed their set, which surprised me, being as how i am not a fan of the country. i would say they probably lean closer to the americana side of the country genre (since i actually liked it), but whatever it was, i dug it. really talented group of musicians, great vocalists. loved the multi-part harmonies. don't know how many were covers and how many were originals, but i liked everything i heard.

next up was Here, In Arms, who i've seen once before. some really nice folky, bluesy, alt-country-ish pop.

Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys were next, with the Unabomber making a guest appearance, sittin in on lead. really like these guys - very well-done piano/guitar-pop tunes, with a little wall-of-sound thrown in every once in a while. everyone in my crew (except for josephus, who has taste) let out a collective yawn and headed over to zini's after a couple songs, but screw them - whattatheyknow. joe and i really dug it. great set.

at one point, john solis (method entertainment head honcho) bought me, the piledriver, and knuckles a shot (a red-headed slut, if you must know), thereby instantly making him Our Hero.

next up was Sunward, who was easily the highlight of the evening for me (but you coulda guessed that, eh?). one of my earlier descriptions of their sound: dark, lush, wall-of-sound, sometimes moody, anthemic art rock with a splash of psychedelia thrown in. loved the new visuals. loved the radiohead cover (i think i might like it better than the original, actually), love the scorching violin, love the psychedelic guitar and lap-steel. fantastic, high-energy set. shoulda been the headliners, no doubt.

at one point, my man pete blew through at ninety miles an hour, just to make an appearance and secure his indie music cred, i guess.

Airline headlined the evening, since Deadman had to cancel, being as how it was raining and all. i've seen airline a couple times before, and i usually enjoy it. maybe it was because knuckles kept screaming in my ear "this band sucks ass" over and over, but for some reason, i just didn't get into it. they played their usual brand of guitar/piano pop, but i had to agree wif knuckles - after a while, it started to get repetitive. i won't hesitate to catch them again, tho, since i've enjoyed them in the past, but last night, they just didn't connect with me.

managed to prove my "creepy old man" status by rapping to manya of blue petal, tellin her how much i liked their set at the ultraviolet show, which caused her to run screaming from the room (kidding, but she did move a few chairs away from me. great ego-boost, that was).

at some point while airline was playing, some fire-twirlers showed up and started flingin fire on the patio. apparently, they were associated with some sort of art show goin on in the far-bar. also associated with that was holy diver, who somehow showed up on the bill. i really wanted nothin to do with what they were bringin, so we went and checked out the (seemingly way-overpriced, at least to this art novice) art in the far-bar. didn't buy anything, case you were wonderin.

all in all, a pretty good night. so i can say what i said last year - nice job, solis.

9/7/08 - Look Mexico, Bear Colony, Criminal Shift

since saturday night turned out to be such a cluster (see below), and being as how it was sunday and all, i headed to church.

psych! it was only the prophet bar (i did read a verse written on one of the photos on the wall - does that count?). wanted to catch Bear Colony, who i'd really dug last February.

praise jeebus - one of the nice things aboot the prophet bar (in addition to a fantastic sound system) - they start shows (relatively) early - 8:00 in this case. vury nice, for us 9-5 workin folk. one of the bad things? $4.50 for a well. bastards.

another great thing, at least sunday night, was the between-set music. turns out it was the (smokin hot) bartender's ipod, and she has fantastic taste. will definitely be checking out dresden dolls.

first up was Criminal Shift, from Plano (represent!). i know, i know - you hear plano, and you see how old they are (juniors in high school!), and you expect whiny emo garbage, but these guys weren't like that at all. i was floored by what i heard. 4-man band: guitar, bass, keys, drums. dude on lead had powerful, at-times howling voice, not at all what you'd expect coming from a high school junior who seems to be going for the whole harry potter look (including a lightning bolt on his guitar strap). very nice harmonies from the keyboard player (you know i love that). thundering bass. very sophisticated songs for their age. some really fantastic high-energy, very-well executed indie pop. loved it. one slight problem - they opened with a cover of "Hey Ya" by Outkast, and I damn near walked outside to wait til their set was over. very glad i didn't. definitely want to catch them again.

Bear Colony, from Arkansas, was next. saw these guys in february (review here) and absolutely loved it, and sunday night confirmed that opinion. 5-man band, including two drummers (MATAS-style), which was awesome. unbelievably powerful, emotional, wall-of-sound, anthemic guitar pop. right in my wheelhouse. i was in heaven. didn't want the set to end. please check out this band if you get the chance.

next up was Look Mexico, and they was aight. similar in style to Bear Colony, but their sound just didn't resonate with me. lead wore strangely-creepy 70's-style wife beater and was goin for the grizzly adams look. whole band sat down on floor at one point during a song. not sure why - seemed a bit contrived. definitely a talented band, just didn't connect with me (it's hard to splain these things).

headlining was Luminate, and if you think i'm gonna hang around to listen to a goddam praise band, most of whom seemed to be wearing vests (never a good sign), you haven't been paying attention.

9/6/08 - Sean Kirkpatrick, Baboon, Red Monroe

jeezchrist what a royal clusterfuck saturday night turned out to be. pretty sure i shoulda gone to dan's instead. ya, pretty sure.

lineup at dada was supposed to be Glen Reynolds, 2/3rds of PPT, Baboon, and Red Monroe (in that order). when i showed up, beard tells me the lineup is Red Monroe first, then Baboon, Roy Ivy, Frankie 45, and PPT. wtf? crazy-ass music biz.

The Les Savy Fan came out wif his friend Scott, both mos definitely on the prowl. Amazing number of hot chicks in the crowd, like i've never seen before at dada. LSF tells me it was deceiving, tho - they were all attached (yes, he checked. yes, all of them).

first up was Red Monroe, only it wasn't. eric steele was MIA, and some dude from Mission to the Sea was in his place (which i knew in advance, thanks to josephus). Was kinda interested to hear how all my favorite RM songs would sound without Eric, but it didn't happen - i recognized one RM song (blue mountain air, one of my favorites), but the rest was i dono what. must've been a bunch of MTTS material, cuz i didn't know any of it. don't get me wrong, i actually liked it quite a bit, and i'll be checking out MTTS, but i loves me some RM, and i was really lookin forward to seein them.
next up was Baboon. they was aight, but i couldn't figure out what was up with the lead - there was definitely Something Very Wrong With His Pants, or maybe he just has Pants Issues. Either he had forgotten his belt and was grabbing his pants to keep them from falling down, or he was trying to hike them up so we could all see his perty shoes, or he was trying to bunch up the material around his package to make it look bigger. i dono, but it was very distracting, and kept the LSF and I chuckling thru the whole set. anyways, it was some pretty good high-energy, slightly-shouty post-punk. heard weezer on some songs, too.
near the end of the set, my man pete shows up and asks if i'm goin to see sean k at the lounge. now, i knew sean was playin there, but i thot i was gonna have to miss him cuz he would play the same time as Red Monroe, but now that things were all fucked up, i realized i could catch him. and so's i did. thanks, petey.

so i stumbled down to the lounge and paid my second cover of the night (so you know i must've been feelin pretty happy). it was a gutterth thing, so there was the usual gutterth trappings everywhere - tv's playing snow, projected images on a screen on the stage, and that one dude who's always front and center, rocking back and forth like he's at the wailing wall, and over-clapping like mad. nah, just kiddin, i love those gutterth guys, they do good work. sean had his full band with him (they are apparently now called "Nervous Curtains"), just like last week, and it absolutely kicked ass. they seem to be coming together more and more each week, as they fine-tune the new material. the addition of Ian's dark synths and Robert's pounding drums make sean's material come alive and kick you in the nuts. and maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like it was definitely harder-rockin than last week. this is no namby-pamby piano pop stuff, folks, it'll kick your ass. absolutely loved the whole set (as i always do).

went back to dada, where LSF and scott were still hangin out, listening to what had to be The Worst Crap I Have Ever Heard. it was 2/3rds of PPT, plus some guy on acoustic guitar. so there were two guys hip-hoppin/rappin, plus the guy playin guitar and singing the most godawful stuff ever (mostly in falsetto, it seemed). they were tryin to get the crowd into it (throw yer hands up, etc.), but no one was buyin it. seriously, what a bizarre and unpleasant combination. maybe it was performance art of some sort? dono, but i found it unbearable. LSF and friend headed to the doublewide (where they apparently attempted to sabotage Kim Pendleton's marriage), and i went back to the lounge to catch The Great Tyrant, which i instantly regretted (a sean k reference, heh heh). i admit, i have pretty narrow taste in music, so i cannot objectively judge bands in genres i don't like (see above), but jeezchrist are you serious? i couldn't take more than one song. sorta like goth screamo death-metal? 3-man band, one goth dude in all black playin keys, plus ZZ-top wannabe on guitar, and drums. mos def not for me.all in all, a very unsatisfying night, only saved from disaster status by my man sean kirkpatrick (and band).

8/30/08 - Zest of Yore, Ume, Record Hop

made the journey westward to hailey's in denton to catch record hop. managed to drag Knuckles and The Piledriver wif me, cuz i knew they would enjoy the greatness of record hop, plus which, RH and Ume both have hot chick lead singers, and those two are just like that.

also enjoyed the company of a local denton gal, who apparently knows everyone in the denton music scene, being as how they all apparently have hung out at Dan's at one point or another (where she apparently has a chair reserved in her name).

first up was Record Hop. i've seen these guys 3 times now (previous write-up here), and they kick my ass every time. blistering, visceral, & gut-wrenching are terms i've used to describe them. small problem at hailey's - couldn't really hear ashley's vocals very well. still don't understand how the sound guy can't hear that, too, and fix it. knuckles and the piledriver seemed to be offended when ashley and scott turned their backs and jammed for like 5 minutes, but i thot they were kickin ass. great set.

next up was Ume, from austin. very similar in style to record hop - some incredible, high-energy, hard-rockin bluesy stuff. 3-man band - 2 guitars and drummer. awesome vocals (sounded just like ashley to me, and you could actually hear them (maybe the sound guy woke up)), plus some amazing guitar playing from the whirling dervish that was the lead. fantastic set - would definitely like to catch them again. knuckles and the piledriver actually liked them better than RH.

knuckles damn near had to kick some indie-rocker ass when the dude dared to get between him and the hot-chick lead (knuckles was front and center, as he is wont to do when there's a hot chick singin lead). too funny. he also had to dodge Drunken Lame' Boy, whose shirt was so shiny he served as a mobile disco ball as he stumbled around.

last up was Zest of Yore, and they were turrrrrrible. not sure what it was, but dear gawd, we couldn't wait for it to be over. didn't like the vocals, the guitar playin, the musical style, nothin. maybe it was because they were a let-down after two great bands, i dono. i'm not sayin they were bad, just that all three of us didn't care for it. at all. they closed their encore (!) with "purple rain", which just about killed us.

8/28/08 - Sean Kirkpatrick Trio, Jack with One Eye, Silk Stocking

headed down to club dada on thursday night to catch sean kirkpatrick. 'twas pretty strange - i didn't recognize any of the staff in the whole joint. hmmpf. not like the good ol' days.

first up was silk stocking (my second time to see 'em, my first time to remember it). loved it. two-man band - Liz on keys and vocals, and Shawn on drums, guitar, and tambourine. really dug what i heard - Liz's howling, gut-wrenching vocals on top of a bluesy, dirge-like mixture of piano and guitar. very unique, very talented. look forward to hearing them again.

next up was jack with one eye. 3-man band - guitars, keys, drums. some pretty good psychedelic-infused shoegaze. vocals an afterthought (or maybe they were just mixed down too low). kept firin off some pre-recorded voice tracks spouting political rhetoric, but i hate to tell 'em - you couldn't really hear/understand much of it. i heard "war in iraq", that's about it. anyways, 'twas an enjoyable set.

last up was the incomparable sean kirkpatrick, with a full band backing him (and by "full band", i mean Ian on synth, and Robert on drums). been a while since i've seen the trio. you know from my previous posts how much i've fallen in love with the solo stuff i've heard over the past few months, including the new stuff on the crazy jeff show podcast, but i have to say - having the full band backing sean added a fantastic new dimension to the music. i cannot wait for him to hit the studio (probably this winter, according to sean) and record his new stuff - it is incredibly good.

8/23/08 - AM Ramblers, Telegraph Canyon, Monahans, Doug Burr

headed out to hailey's to catch one of my favorites - telegraph canyon. fellow live-music fan joe the boy toy showed up, too. he managed to chat up half the women in the place before i even got there - dude has skeels.

pretty good crowd - pre-semester shenanigans, eh?

first up was Doug Burr, someone i've seen a lot of hype aboot. He had a full band backing him - keys, guitars, banjo, pedal steel, drums. everyone sat. doug has skunk hair. some pretty good stuff, tho it drifted off into alt-country land more often than i like. one or two were phenomenal wall-of-sound anthemic guitar pop tunes, wish there were more like that. seemed to go on quite a while - i think he's used to headlining, not opening. last song a real snoozer.

next up was Monahans, from austin. um, yeah - i can't say i can recall much about them. i was, uh, very distracted (it involved plenty of incoherent babbling, that's all i'll say (gentlemen never tell, and neither do i)). 5-man band, pretty sure, lotsa guitars. what i remember hearing (during lulls in the babbling) was pretty good - i'd like to hear them again, when i can devote my full attention to them.

next up was telegraph canyon, who proved once again why they are one of my favorites (read prior writeups here and here). another awesome set by this terrifically talented group. did miss sherilyn's harmonies, tho. hopefully a short-term absence.

last up was AM Ramblers, who seem to be following me around from show to show. again, some really well-executed bluegrass. if that's your thing, look them up.

all in all, a decent night of music, and some very interesting conversation. not too shabby.

8/15/08 - Ella Minnow, Bee vs. Moth, Timeline Post, Sean Kirkpatrick

headed out to hailey's, mainly to hear sean k, but it turned out to be a pretty good night overall.

sean kirkpatrick - seen him more times than i can count, and he slays me every time. he's just one of those songwriters that writes song after song that absolutely resonate with me. would love to know who he listens to - pretty sure i'd love it. his set list is definitely transitioning from first album material to a bunch of new stuff, which is all incredible. (you can hear some of the new material on the crazy jeff show page or the gutterth page, and i suggest you do). did a beautiful amy winehouse cover. i've said it before - sean is one of the very few artists whose covers i enjoy, cuz he does such a great job of making them his own. heard 'life without chocolate' live for the first time - one of my favorites from his album. an outstanding set. sean will be performing with his full band at club dada on the 28th - check it out. timeline post - 2nd time to see these guys - liked it much better this time. 6-man band - 4 guitars, keys and drums. some outstanding, dreamy, wall-of-sound guitar pop (didn't hear the keys too much). only problem - music that strong needs some kick-yer-ass vocals to stand above it, and the lead just doesn't have that kind of voice. probably works fine on a recording, but live, his vocals just got drowned out on every song. can't help but think that some beefy vocals would kick it up a notch. really dug the set, tho. bee vs. moth - um, no thanks. not a fan of jazz. cornet, bari sax, guitar, bass (sometimes upright), drums. seemed like they were good at it, but i just don't dig that stuff. ella minnow - holy shit, ella minnow kicked my ass. totally different take on them vs. the first time i saw 'em. songs kinda all over the map - some early-radioheadish stuff, some bluesy numbers, some 4/4 downbeat-happy songs, some wall of sound anthemic rock, some instrumentals - and all of it was fantastic. lead reminded me of stephen duncan (of chemistry set "fame"), except on speed. lead vox strong (great falsetto), if not exactly conventional (sometimes he reminded me of squiggy from laverne and shirley), but it worked. super-high energy, too - both the lead and the (cape-wearing) key/sax-player were spazzes, injecting the show with tons of energy. man, i loved it. can't wait to see 'em again. (soory for the crappy pic)

Weekend picks

after a little time off wif da kiddos, it's time to venture out again:

tonight (Friday), you'll find me listening to the twisted, tormented, but always tuneful stylings of Mr. Sean Kirkpatrick (winner of a DOMA for best instrumentalist, you know) at Hailey's:
http://www.pegasusnews.com/events/2008/aug/15/106290/

not so sure about the rest of the line-up, but hopefully it'll be worth the trip.

another decent show: Whiskey Folk Ramblers and 100 Damned Guns at Dan's:
http://www.pegasusnews.com/events/2008/aug/15/105720/


Saturday night's kinda up in the air. Might be goin to a private-party/gallery-opening (oo-la-la). Wouldn't mind seein Baboon at the Dee-dub, but dono if it's worth goin just for them:
http://www.pegasusnews.com/events/2008/aug/16/105138/

if you like the bluesy sorta stuff, you can't miss with this show:
http://www.pegasusnews.com/events/2008/aug/16/105162/

and if you likes the alt-country:
http://www.pegasusnews.com/events/2008/aug/16/100866/

8/6/08 - Parata, RTB2, Loxsly, Daniel Folmer

went out to hailey's on wednesday night -tryin to get my fill before i go out of commission this weekend.

happily, another live-music nutjob i've recently met - The Tara^TM - showed up, too, so i didn't have to drink alone (how cool is that!). plenty of incoherent babbling ensued (on my part, i should say).

up first was daniel folmer. saw him once before, playing with only a keyboard player, and really dug it. last night, i was excited to see him set up with a full four-piece band. bleebe it or not, tho - eh, not so much. not that it was bad by any means, but i definitely liked him better with a stripped-down band - i think it's a better fit for his intimate, soulful music. next up was loxsly, from austin. really dug these guys. nice collection of dark, slightly-psychedelic indie pop, full of great keys and pedal steel. the only lighting on stage came from projected images on a sheet they had rigged up behind them. dono why, but it kinda bugged me that i couldn't see them. really enjoyed the set, tho. rtb2 was next, and they were amazing. my third time to see 'em, and it was easily the best of the three. great bluesy, gut-wrenching stuff with incredible guitar work and kick-yer-ass drums. of special note last night - ryan's outstanding vocals (i'd never noticed how great his voice is). and my GAWD can that dude play. i'm always amazed how they can sound like a full band with only two guys on stage. funny how much your mood influences your opinions - the song i thot was a beating last time was one of my favorites last night. anyways, 'twas a great set. parata was last. seen them three times also, with mixed results - it seems like it's different every time, and not at all what i remembered. this time, i heard a lot of weezer, and even some happy bullets, bleebe it or not. The Tara said she heard the Beach Boys (and the ramones, i think). anyways, they were good at what they were doin, but every song started sounding the same after a while.